Diverse Voices in Photographic Albums: “These Are Our Stories” (Routledge History of Photography)

251 Pages·2022·23.684 MB·English

by  Mary Trent (editor), Kris Belden-Adams (editor)

Diverse Voices in Photographic Albums
Through a variety of case studies by global scholars from diverse academic fields, this
book explores photographic-album practices of historically marginalized figures from
a range of time periods, geographic locations, and socio-cultural contexts. Their
albums’ stories span various racial, ethnic, gender and sexual identities; nationalities;
religions; and dis/abilities.
The vernacular albums featured in this volume present narratives that move
beyond those reflected in our existing histories. Essays examine the visual, material,
and aural strategies that album-makers have used to assert control over the
presentation of their histories and identities, and to direct what those narratives
have to say, a point of special relevance as these albums move out of private domestic
space and into public archives, institutions, and digital formats. This book does not
consider photographic albums and scrapbooks as separate genres, but as a continuum
of modern creative practices of photographic and mass-print collage aimed at self-
expression and narrative-building that co-evolved and were readily accessible.
The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, history of photography,
visual culture, material culture, media studies, and cultural studies.
Mary Trent is an Assistant Professor of Art and Architectural History at College of
Charleston, South Carolina, USA.
Kris Belden-Adams is an Associate Professor of Art History at the University of
Mississippi, USA.
Routledge History of Photography
This series publishes research monographs and edited collections focusing on the history
and theory of photography. These original, scholarly books may take an art historical,
visual studies, or material studies approach.
The Materiality of Exhibition Photography in the Modernist Era
Form, Content, Consequence
Laurie Taylor
The Image of Environmental Harm in American Social Documentary Photography
Chris Balaschak
Hybrid Photography
Intermedial Practice in Science and Humanities
Edited by Sara Hillnhuetter, Stefanie Klamm and Friedrich Tietjen
The Selfie, Temporality, and Contemporary Photography
Claire Raymond
Photography in China
Science, Commerce and Communication
Oliver Moore
Visual Culture Approaches to the Selfie
Edited by Derek Conrad Murray
Italian Neorealist Photography
Its Legacy and Aftermath
Antonella Russo
Photography and Political Repressions in Stalin’s Russia
Defacing the Enemy
Denis Skopin
Diverse Voices in Photographic Albums
“These Are Our Stories”
Edited by Mary Trent and Kris Belden-Adams
How Photography Changed Philosophy
Daniel Rubinstein
For more information about this series, please visit: https://www.routledge.com/
Routledge-History-of-Photography/book-series/RHOP
Diverse Voices in
Photographic Albums
“These Are Our Stories”
Edited by Mary Trent and
Kris Belden-Adams
Cover image: Frank Rinehart or Adolph Muhr, Mother and Child, Wichita, U.S.
Indian Congress of the Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition in Omaha,
1898. Hand-tinted platinum print. Boston Public Library/Digital Commonwealth.
Public Domain.
First published 2023
by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
and by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 selection and editorial matter, Mary Trent and Kris Belden-Adams;
individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Mary Trent and Kris Belden-Adams to be identified as the authors of
the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been
asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known
or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to
infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Names: Trent, Mary, 1981- editor. | Belden-Adams, Kris, editor.
Title: Diverse voices in photographic albums : “these are our stories” / edited by
Mary Trent and Kris Belden-Adams.
Description: First edition. | New York, NY : Routledge, 2022. | Series: Routledge
history of photography | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022004348 (print) | LCCN 2022004349 (ebook) | ISBN
9780367743550 (hbk) | ISBN 9780367743574 (pbk) | ISBN
9781003157427 (ebk)
Subjects: LCSH: Photograph albums‐‐History. | Vernacular photography‐‐Case
studies. | Storytelling‐‐History.
Classification: LCC TR501 .D57 2022 (print) | LCC TR501 (ebook) | DDC
770‐‐dc23/eng/20220414
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022004348
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022004349
ISBN: 978-0-367-74355-0 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-74357-4 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-15742-7 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003157427
Typeset in Sabon
by MPS Limited, Dehradun
Dedicated to James Wilson Trent, Jr. and Margaret Rose Vendryes

Contents
List of Figures ix
List of Contributors xiii
Acknowledgments xv
Introduction 1
1 The Album’s Diverse Narratives 3
MARY TRENT
PART I
Complicating Family Narratives 25
2 Women on Holiday: Intergenerational Narratives in
Photographic Albums from India 27
SURYANANDINI NARAIN
3 “Children of Shadowland”: A Family’s Scrapbook Story of
Intellectual Disability 43
JAMES TRENT
4 Henry Darger’s “Family” Album of American Orphans and
Fugitives 56
MARY TRENT
PART II
Stepping Out of “the Closet,” Privately 75
5 “Dropping Hairpins”: Cisgender Performance and
“Homosociality” in William Whitney’s Fin-de-Siècle
College Albums 77
KRIS BELDEN-ADAMS
viii Contents
6 A Scissored Gay Life of the 1930s and 1940s: The Scrapbooks
of Ogden Salmon 97
JAMES A. KASER
7 In Plain Sight: Album-Making and Queer Identity in
Mid-Twentieth-Century South Africa 115
DANIELLE KINSEY
PART III
Retelling National and International Histories 133
8 “We Carry the Weight of a 150-Year Legacy”: Sharing the
Memories of a Civil War Photograph Album 135
MICHÈLE GATES MORESI
9 The Politics of Floating: Space and Experience in G. Prat
Photograph Album of China and Japan, 1874–1900 148
XINYUE YUAN
10 Collecting the Indian Congress: Reframing Indigenous
Photography Albums from the Trans-Mississippi and
International Exposition 164
KAREN BARBER
11 Secrets from the Family Album: Official and Silenced
Knowledge on Migration 194
YA’ARA GIL-GLAZER
PART IV
Conclusions 209
12 Conclusions: Albums and Diverse Communities 211
KRIS BELDEN-ADAMS
13 Afterword 220
MARGARET ROSE VENDRYES
Index 227
Figures
2.1 Washington Monument, June ’93, 1993, color print, 4 in. × 6 in. ©
2020 Mathur and Prashad Families 30
2.2 Mathur Home at Thoreau Drive, Bethesda, Maryland, 1993, color
print, 4 in. × 6 in. © 2020 Mathur and Prashad Families 32
2.3 Monument, Washington D.C., April ’94, 1994, color print, 4 in. ×
6 in. © 2020 Mathur and Prashad Families 34
2.4 Lilac Garden, Niagara, Canada, May ’94, 1994, color print. ©
2020 Mathur and Prashad Families 35
2.5 Rekha, Asha, and Preeti on holiday in Kashmir, 1964, black-and-
white print, 2.36 in. × 2.36 in. © 2020 Mathur and Prashad Families 37
3.1 Bernhard and Emily Kress, New Lisbon Cottage, Kress Scrapbook
(1944–1966). James Trent Collection 44
3.2 National Association for Retarded Children, Retarded Children Can
Be Helped!, Kress Scrapbook (1944–1966). James Trent Collection 48
3.3 Bernhard and Emily Kress, Choo-Choo Train, Kress Scrapbook
(1944–1966). James Trent Collection 50
3.4 Bernhard and Emily Kress, The “Jail,” Kress Scrapbook (1944–1966).
James Trent Collection 51
3.5 New Jersey Parents Group for Retarded Children, Children of the
Shadowland, Kress Scrapbook (1944–1966). James Trent Collection 52
4.1 Henry Darger, Album Cover, left side, c. 1950s, collage,
watercolor, pencil, carbon tracing, 31 ½ × 128 ¼ inches [whole
cover]. Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne, Switzerland. © 2021
Kiyoko Lerner/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York 57
4.2 Henry Darger, Album Cover, right side, c. 1950s, collage,
watercolor, pencil, carbon tracing, 31 ½ × 128 ¼ inches [whole
cover]. Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne, Switzerland. © 2021
Kiyoko Lerner/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York 58
4.3 Darger’s Table with Source Materials, Scrapbooks, and Art
Supplies, Including a Stack of Life Magazines. The Henry Darger
Room Collection, Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art,
gift of Kiyoko Lerner 61
4.4 Henry Darger, Annabelle Aronburg Vivian, c. 1940s, watercolor
and pencil on paper, 35 ½ × 31 ½ inches. Collection of Robert A.
Roth, Chicago, Illinois. Photographer, John Faier. © 2021 Kiyoko
Lerner/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York 64